Thursday, August 28, 2008

teachers day eve eve eve eve

My mother was right. There was a jam going into thomson plaza tonight because everyone was desperately buying presents for teacher's day, which is going to be celebrated tomorrow. There was a stall in the middle of the first floor selling super nonsensical presents like a puffy cloth heart saying HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY and horrible fake flowers. I forced them to steer away. We went to the flower shop. Okay, who do you have to buy for? A male chinese science teacher. Why not a turtle, and tell him he looks like one. Fake flowers abound. A little girl started taking a long glass stalk of rose. Her father asked her to stop and she said, 'But my teacher likes it!!!!' He said, 'No, she doesn't like it.' The father looks very absorbed in trying to choose something as the girl walks around in a white and pink dress. They eventually (i think) choose small bunches of small flowers. A little boy twirls around the shop saying Flower. Flower shop! We go to popular after paying (as we enter I think I hear a boy asking his father where his sister is and he says, put-put!) and so begins the search for cool stationary. Like...post-it flags? Pencil box? Bunch of chops that say GOOD WORK, DYNAMIC, CREATIVE. My sister is the english monitor but doesn't really like her english teacher and doesn't want to buy anything for the teacher, doesn't care really. What about anonymous adult diapers, or bras, or something. My mother eventually finds nice net bags and a cow clip and a teacher's day card that gets her stressed because she can't find its price (and one can't get the exact same thing for teachers, what if they compare?). All over the shop people are desperately hunting for silly presents. One mother (american?) showed her son the pink stuff toy (pig?) she chose for Miss ___. He says, yeah!

All I remember from past teacher's days are desiree staying over to bake chocolate chocolate-chip cookies (pre-mix bought from ntuc), the old kitchen late at night, shifting the drumset away so we could sleep on the blood-red carpet floor of my old room in our old house. Do you remember, ah choo?

I wish there were teachers to bake chocolate chip cookies for in that way, school tables to put your presents on the lower rung under the table, school bells and chalkboards for someone to write happy teachers day on the board between lessons and all the silliest presents in the world.

1 comment:

d said...

YES I REMEMBER! the LIZARDS in your KITCHEN!!!! eeeerrckkkh. and the millions of molecules of germs in your carpet!! oh my. teacher's day!!! HA. you know so many people come to the shop to get teachers day presents. and today this teacher came to get presents for 20 students. and she said "cannot get too expensive if not the other teachers will get angry". she wanted tiny wind up robots for the boys but they were 16.90 each so cannot. crazy teacher...dont they normally just buy chocolates or something! for teacher's day i got elfie a pillow in a light grey pillow case and wrote "grampa's" on it for when he stays over in my room! and he said he might get a tshirt that said "gramma's" HAHA......